§ Mr. STANTONasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he will advise the formation of a Committee to deal at once with the rates of pay of our soldiers and sailors in all fighting units; if he is aware of the fact that discontent prevails in the ranks with the pay which our British soldiers receive; if he is aware that hundreds of thousands of these men were trade unionists who gladly volunteered and left good jobs and homes to serve their country; is he aware that the low rate of pay of our soldiers has a tendency to bring the Service into contempt; that no British soldier can be expected to live respectably on his low rate of pay; and will he hold out some hope that the men who make such sacrifices for the honour and safety of our Empire shall in future be better paid?
§ Mr. FORSTERAs my hon. Friend has been informed on a previous occasion, it is not considered necessary to appoint a Committee on this subject. I am not aware of the discontent to which my hon. Friend refers.
Mr. T. WILSONasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office whether he is aware that carpenters and joiners enlisted in works battalions are doing work at their own trade for the ordinary Army pay alongside civilians in the same trade receiving the proper civilian rates; that 2d. per hour working pay allowed to these men in the Army was stopped on 1st January last; and whether he will state what the policy of the War Office is in regard to soldiers working at their own-trade?
§ Mr. FORSTERThe facts are as stated' in the first two parts of my hon. Friend's question. All men in works units draw Infantry rates of pay and no working pay. As regards the last part, a soldier draws the Army rate of pay applicable to the 1865W arm to which he belongs, and the fact that a man happens to be employed at what was his civil trade gives him no claim to preferential treatment.